I have posted some ideas a week and a half or so regarding the adoption in Iceland. Unfortunately there seems to be more interest in venting frustrations than anything else. I will simply try again hoping to get some feedback. If there are frustrations, then the best way to get rid of them is to grab the bull by the bollocks and make shit happen:
We're currently working on a merchant only version of the Android app, and some merchant friendly tweaks need to be made to that. We've purchased tablets to provide to merchants as an AUR POS system, and we're testing that out and getting documentation ready for a push to get more merchants onboard. A lot of the efforts right now are grass roots word of mouth by team members in Iceland. The blockchain is functioning properly right now, and for the most part the price has been relatively stable, so technical developments are on the back burner in favor of code cleanup and maintenance.
Getting the word out to merchants should be one of the top priorities in my opinion. Being able to use it as a viable medium of exchange and having merchants passively promoting it is a great way to getting the word out to the population of Iceland.
As soon as the POS system is ready I would happily volunteer to fly over to Iceland and talk to the merchants personally. Being a bit rusty on speaking Icelandic though but heard that most people speak English.
I think a hands on approach would be the way to get the fastest results.
Also something that might be a great way to get the Icelandic population engaged is to load up a paper wallet with let's say 5K-10K AUR, cutting up the private key into 10 snippets and distributing them in Reykjavik.
That way it would be a quest to gather the snippets via puzzles and/or hints. The first to correctly solve the puzzles/hints along the way gets the prize.
I am sure the reward would be substantial enough to get media mentions via radio, news websites and newspapers. Also it would engage the population as the reward would be substantial.
Also would be happy to donate to it and contribute to a challenging enough quest.
In my opinion, Auroracoin has a great future ahead, but must be adopted as soon and as widely in Iceland as possible.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the post, sometimes this forum ends up in bickering about unimportant stuff, but your post is spot on what we need to be discussing. Merchant adoption...
Hopefully we will be able to push the merchants as soon as possible. I'm getting questions from a few individuals that send us mail directly to the Auroracoin Foundation asking what we should be doing and if we are going to be doing something.
The short answer is that most of the infrastructure is about ready to start the merchant adoption phase, but it will require manpower to go and ask merchants if they are willing to accept Auroracoin and show them how to set up a wallet and how to exchange on isx.is.
We will have to sell this payment method to them but I'm not sure what is the best sales pitch for merchants. They are perhaps most interested in getting paid faster, merchants get credit/debit cards are settled every 7- 30 days in Iceland. Perhaps they are interested in lower fees, now small merchants pay 2-5% for debit/credit cards which will drop down to ~1% if they sell on isx.is.
We might need Auroracoin stickers to put in the windows of their shops, perhaps the Foundation should order a few stickers and give to anyone that wants to distribute. As said before we are working on getting some tablets going, perhaps subsidized by the Auroracoin foundation. It is pointless to talk to a merchant and not being able to deliver a working wallet. If they own an old mobile phone/tablet, that can sit by the cash register, connected to wifi, then that is all they need to start accepting. We will have to be able to set them up with a wallet and teach them how to work with Auroracoin.
Perhaps someone can create videos, a step by step process on what a merchant needs to do to start accepting. How the wallets work and how to use isx.is.
Then we have to promote these merchants and get the word out, use social media. Try to create incentives with the merchants (discount) to get people to use Aurroacoin and go to these merchants with their Auroracoin.
I'm sure we will get on the news and get free publicity when this gets going and we have set up 10-100 merchants.